And now for the moment you've all been waiting for, our decision for the Game of the Year. The game of the year, truly the Top Pupil of them all, must be the best of the best. So what makes a game the best? Besides the fact that it can't totally suck, there are several factors that we were left to consider. It must be high quality all the way around. In graphics, sounds, production, and stability. If a game has major bugs and problems it certainly could have done better. The game must have a long playing life relational to what the game is (obviously an RPG would be longer than an RTS.) It must have a good replay value, to give it years of longevity. It must be something that re-defines the industry, something new, something different, something that stands apart from the rows of recycled classics.

And the winner is...

Honestly, this years winner should really be a tie. The three games that ranked in the finals were really of a quality over and above what is typically expected of a game, they were all games that should be a part of every gamers collection. Unfortunately, one of them had to win the coveted title. What the debate finally came down to was two major points. Replay value, and uniqueness to the industry. With those two things in mind, The choice was clear.

Sacrifice

Sacrifice is new. Period. It is something that has never been done before, and has never been tried before. It redefined the stale Real Time Strategy genre and made it interesting once again, something that Homeworld failed to do last year. Not only its replay value is incredible. With an adaptive graphics engine, it will continually enhance itself as you upgrade your computer, so in the future, the game will look and play even cooler than it does now (I ran it on a GHz Thunderbird with a GeForce 2 GTS, trust me, it's cool, and that isn't even the highest of its settings.) What's more is that Sacrifice ships with a map editor, and Interplay provides a community site for user created maps, and will announce the best every so often. The game is infinitely expandable with the ability to create new campaigns or new multiplayer missions.

Baldur's Gate II: Shadows of Amn

An extremely close second to Sacrifice, Baldur's Gate II: Shadows of Amn is the single best RPG I've ever played. It even has some replay value in the form of playing as an evil character, or trying quests you have not played yet, but in terms of the unique factor, it is still an RPG no matter how you look at it. Sacrifice is so unusual, it deserves its own genre.

Giants: Citizen Kabuto

It's silly, it's well structured, it's unique, it's just plain fun. So why not giving it a higher ranking? In many way's it's similar to Sacrifice, even though they are extremely different from each-other, but Sacrifice just seemed a bit more solid and well balanced. Not to say that Giant's isn't, it's very solid, and very likely, the single most beautiful game I've ever laid eyes on, but it just didn't seem as tight. In terms of it's comparison to Baldur's Gate II, BG2 appeals to a very different mood, the long, drawn out campaign which you can play on and off for years before finishing it. It can become a part of your life, literally. But if you were planning on going out and buying three games right away, Giants is a must on that list!

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